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Hypothetically proposing a ban on Jews entering the United States as an equivalent to Donald Trump’s temporary proposal to ban Muslim foreigners from entering the country, left-wing CNN’s Anderson Cooper seemingly drew a parallel between the threat posed to national security from Jewish and Islamic terrorism.

On Monday’s AC360, an article written by left-wing Andrew Sullivan (who has previously described himself as a conservative) was used as springboard for discussion among the evening’s panelists. In it, Sullivan writes that a possible Trump presidency would be an “extinction-level event” for America’s liberal democracy and constitutional order.

“I think he threatens our constitution. I think he threatens our civil order. I think that the pledges to round up and deport 11 million human beings from this country is the kind of platform no one has ever put forward at a major nation level,” said Sullivan, claiming that Trump was “condoning violence.”

Ignoring the phenomenon of Islamic terrorism and its overlap with Islam and Muslims, Sullivan rhetorically asked how Americans would react to a candidate proposing a ban on Jews entering the country.

“If a candidate today were saying, ‘No Jews allowed into the United States,’ we would know what that candidate was about. We have one who is saying, ‘No Muslims in the United States,’ and we’re not prepared to really call it out the way it is,” said Sullivan.

Taking up Sullivan’s position for inquiry, Cooper asked Kayleigh McEnany – a Trump supporter and CNN contributor – about the Republican front-runner’s proposal to temporarily ban foreign Muslims from entering the country.

“So Andrew’s argument is if a candidate was saying, don’t allow Jewish people in the country – would that be acceptable?” asked Cooper.

“Well, we don’t have a problem with Jewish people, right now,” responded McEnany.

“Well, there are extremist Jews who’ve committed acts of terror in, against their own leaders,” countered Cooper.

“They’re not operating in four countries and targeting the United States to kill Americans,” replied McEnany.

Sullivan then cast Trump as an existential threat to American values.

“But you’re not arguing to bar these ISIS terrorists, you are arguing that anybody who’s a Muslim, could not be allowed in the United States. That is an abolition of America. This place was designed and created so that people could have freedom of religion and come here and practise as they want. This is an attack upon the United States that your candidate is doing,” said Sullivan.

“If you have a problem with the Muslim part,” said McEnany, then a “temporary halt to all immigration” could be implemented.

Describing Trump’s proposals as a anti-American, Sullivan said they amounted to a “trashing of (America’s) core values and institutions” and an “attack on the very meaning of America.”

Sullivan went on to equate Trump’s proposal for a temporary ban on Islamic immigration to the United States until a time when national security experts could guarantee safety, to a blanket ban on Jews entering the country.

Ryan Lizza – a left-wing CNN contributor who writes for The New Yorker – concluded that the media had insufficiently challenged Trump.